Hardware Information |
|
Review: Implementing the Google Search Appliance in an Intranet environment
Our corporate intranet is a non-framed environment with both Lotus Domino and IIS (.Net and classic ASP) applications and content. We have between 300,000-500,000 pages of web content and documents across more than 1200 "sites" on approximately 30 unique domains. We used to have Inktomi's UltraSeek Server 3.0 as our intranet search engine which was beginning to look like its age (purchased in 1998). The Inktomi product did not handle attachments well (DOC, PPT, PDF, etc.), would not crawl our secured sites, and was no longer supported by the vendor. We did a cursory review of the search vendors and were immediately attracted to Google's 30 day trial offer for their Google Search Appliance (GSA). After signing a standard agreement, they shipped us a brand new shiny yellow unit which we could test for 30 days before returning or purchasing. Product info The GSA is a "black box" 1U standard rack-mountable server. By "black box" I mean, Google gives you a web interface to administer the device but do not want you to access the Operating System (a heavily Google-customized version of Linux). In fact, the license agreement stipulates that you will not tamper with the hardware or OS of the appliance in any way. The device has no need for a keyboard, mouse or video - all you need for normal operation is a network cable and standard power input. The GSA comes in different flavors to fit different needs varying by size of the hardware and correspondingly size of the license. (Licensing is based on the number of URLs crawled by the appliance.) There are 3 different hardware configurations; the GB-1001, GB-5005, and GB-800. These are broken down as follows;
Why Google? As advertised, the GSA met all of our needs being able to index the large variety of filetypes we have in our environment, access secured content, having a documented API, etc. The Google brand power was another big selling factor. When we told our users that they were going to get a Google-based search engine they knew their days of troubled searching were over. Lastly, the 30-day trial run experience we had with the GSA sealed the deal. The appliance is the easiest enterprise solution I've ever had to install, configure and maintain. We were literally up and running within an hour of opening the shipping box. Installation The appliance has two network ports on the back panel; one for normal operation and the other used exclusively for network configuration. To configure the network settings we connected a laptop to the appliance via a special (some pin-outs are non-standard) orange Ethernet cable which is included. The installation process was about as easy as one can imagine for a "black box." First we plugged in the normal operation network cable and then the power. The power plug on the appliance IS the power switch; plug it in to turn on and unplug it to turn it off. After plugging it in, we waited about 5 minutes for the appliance to play a tune which is the signal to continue. Next, we hooked up our laptop (already set to DHCP mode) to the appliance and powered it up. After logging in to our laptop and making sure we had the correct IP assigned by the appliance's built-in DHCP server we are ready to configure the network settings. Total elapsed time (excluding rack mounting): 10 minutes. Configuration Network configuration, like normal administration, is done entirely through a browser and is a simple 5 step process. The first screens ask you for basic network information; IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS. Subsequent screens collect SMTP server, "From" address for GSA notification messages, time zone, NTP (time) servers and the admin account name/password. The last step is to test a few URLs which you will be crawling to make sure you've done the setup correctly. After a final settings review screen configuration is complete and you can then unplug your laptop and get to the good part; start crawling. Total elapsed time: 10 minutes. Crawling the site(s) Using the URL provided, all administration of the GSA is done remotely. After logging in with the ID/password we provided in the previous step, we were presented with the Administration console. We created a new collection to hold our index, put in the "Start crawling from" URL, copied that same URL into the "Follow and Crawl only URLs with the Following patterns" box and we were done. We saved our settings and then clicked the "Start crawling" button. We then went over to the "Crawl status" screen and watched the "Crawled URLs" counter increase. Google advertises that it can crawl about 4,000 URLs in about 15 minutes or so. We found the crawl time would increase significantly if there are documents (Word, PDF, Excel, etc.) linked to from those URLS. After the crawl is done the collection is automatically indexed and then checked against the Serving Prerequisites (any criteria you wish to use to determine whether to move an indexed collection to production) and the collection will either be moved to Production (and consequently searchable) or be moved to Staging. The Staging area lets you validate new crawls before letting users search against them. Crawling configuration After your first crawl you may find the need to go back and tweak the crawling parameters. Google gives you a good amount of control over how sites are crawled, the frequency, how many threads are used, etc. For sites with security, the GSA supports Basic Authentication and an additional security module is available which supports Forms Authentication. The most challenging configuration aspects for us were determining the right combination of URL patterns to exclude from the search. If you are a Domino shop and looking to use the GSA you may need to spend some time getting the crawler configuration just right to support the sometimes convoluted Domino query string parameters. After we got the crawl parameters tuned and the first complete crawl done we did some testing to see if the crawler grabbed all the content. Browsing our site and testing with some strings buried deep inside the taxonomy we always found the GSA had crawled them accurately. We also did some testing with strings inside PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations and the like. When we did come across something that hadn't been crawled a careful analysis led us to discover that we needed to do some more tweaking of the crawl settings. Other notable features Google also gives you a KeyMatch tool that allows you to specify which indexed documents should appear at the top of the results page for a given query. These manifest themselves almost identically to the Sponsored Links at the top of the results page of the Google we all use. A Synonym tool allows you to specify alternate words or phrases for search queries. For example, if someone searches for WCM, you can suggest "Web Content Management" at the top of the results page. An output format feature lets you control (via an XSLT) the presentation of the search results. You can use this for changing the fonts, colors, logo, header, etc. of the results page. We were able to easily remove the "Cached" feature on the results page with some XSLT modifications. The Reporting tool lets you run reports on search queries over various time ranges. It will show you the number of searches per day, per hour, the top 100 keywords and top 100 queries for the time period specified. Downsides The GSA is not for organizations looking to index their shared network drives as the appliance has no facility for crawling file systems. This is really too bad as many companies struggle with the huge quantities of unstructured content on stored on their networks. Of course, there are a plethora of other products out there for exactly this issue. Access directly to databases (e.g. SQL, Oracle, etc.) is another area which is off-limits for the GSA as well as any kind of integration with content or document management systems. Conclusion The Google Search Appliance (GSA) is an excellent search product for HTTP-accessible content. It gives great control over administrative features such as crawler configuration and results serving and sufficient reporting capabilities as well. Those looking for a solution to integrate directly with a content/document management system, databases, or indexing network drives should look to another product. However, if you have a intranet or intranet site with plenty of HTML-based content the GSA may be just what you need. Bryan Mjaanes is the creator/editor of Intranet101.com, a community-based forum for Intranet professionals.
MORE RESOURCES: Computer scientists discover vulnerability in cloud server hardware used by AMD and Intel chips Tech Xplore AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D Review: A Value Gaming Masterpiece Tom's Hardware Saunders Hardware to Close After 131 Years Montclair Local DoD is focused on software, but it can't forget hardware Federal News Network Newcomer Campbell Collects Major Hardware in CAA Softball Postseason Honors Colonial Athletic Association UPDATE: Westlake Ace Hardware to locate in south Columbia, where Big Lots is closing 939theeagle.com Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Hardware Market to Expand at a Robust 26.96% CAGR through 2031 | SkyQuest Technology Yahoo Finance Explosive HBM demand fueling an expected 20% increase in DDR5 memory pricing — demand for AI GPUs drives ... Tom's Hardware Eclypsium Supply Chain Security Platform Protects GenAI Infrastructure with Addition of Hardware and Traini... Security Boulevard Nation’s Best acquires Gambles Hardware LBM Journal Securing Supply Chains for GenAI Hardware and Models Security Boulevard MVD: Hardware Wars (Collector’s Edition) Midwest Film Journal Overclocker sold a die-less Core i9-14900K in China — product suffered from serious silicon deficiency Tom's Hardware Multi-million dollar Cheyenne supercomputer auction ends with $480085 bid — buyer walked away with 8064 Intel ... Tom's Hardware Best Tech and PC Hardware Deals Tom's Hardware Ludington’s baseball team crowned champions in the Ace Hardware Tournament localsportsjournal.com Get rid of Microsoft's Start Menu ads with this new software tool — the "Oh F*ck Go Back" program cleans up Windows 11 Tom's Hardware Optical Network Hardware Market size to record USD 6.07 billion growth from 2023-2027, Emerging new age ... PR Newswire Photo of egregious hardware product packaging sparks frustration online: 'That is infuriating' The Cool Down Historic building in Hardware District to become regional HQ for development services company buildingsaltlake.com Intel reportedly demands all board partners implement Intel Default (Baseline) Profile by May 31 — company hopes to ... Tom's Hardware Our newest hardware office in Taiwan The Keyword | Google Product and Technology News Meletrix Boog75 Review: More enthusiast than gamer Tom's Hardware SK hynix is teasing 300TB SSDs as it pushes into AI Tom's Hardware AMD revamps 40th Anniversary special featuring Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — uses Ryzen AI to upscale old footage Tom's Hardware Best microSD Cards for Raspberry Pi 2024 Tom's Hardware Leaker claims Nvidia plans to launch RTX 5080 before RTX 5090 — which would make perfect sense for a dual-die ... Tom's Hardware Nvidia criticizes AI PCs, says Microsoft's 45 TOPS requirement is only good enough for 'basic' AI tasks Tom's Hardware Tom's Hardware Innovation Awards 2024: A Step Forward Tom's Hardware Alleged hardware store shoplifter shot by Glendale Police FOX 10 News Phoenix Best RP2040 Boards 2024 Tom's Hardware Martin & Sons Hardware Hank | Local News | daily-journal.com Kankakee Daily Journal Newswire & Press Release / Kudelski IoT Selected as One of Zoom's Authorized Hardware Certification Testing Labs ... Newswire Today Cytron Edu Pico Review: Learning to FAIL Tom's Hardware Hardware Wildlife Education Center Utah Division of Wildlife Resources FULL RESULTS: Concho Valley Track Athletes Bring Home Hardware San Angelo LIVE! Hardware Wars Media Play News Microchip's New 32-bit MCUs Include Built-In Hardware Security Module - News All About Circuits Hardware visit Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Though no hardware won, Palacio and Cruz are still Turlock's champions The Turlock Journal Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (Gen 9) review: Admirable gaming value Tom's Hardware Qualcomm responds to benchmark cheating allegations — Snapdragon X Elite/Plus benchmarks claimed to be ... Tom's Hardware The AI revolution "won't require a new piece of hardware," claims OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — but if it does, he says ... Windows Central Rising metal prices could mean more expensive laptops, PC parts, and other electronics in the near future Tom's Hardware Learn about bear safety at Hardware Wildlife Education Center exhibit Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Huawei is secretly backing research at U.S. and U.K. universities again — Chinese tech giant continues to draw ire Tom's Hardware GPU Benchmarks Hierarchy 2024 - Graphics Card Rankings Tom's Hardware Linux: How the Kernel Interacts with Hardware The New Stack |
RELATED ARTICLES
Motherboard Basics A recent Tech Tip covered the basics of selecting a computer case and made mention of the various sizes that correspond to motherboards of different form factors. A few people wrote in expressing interest in understanding more about the basics of motherboards, and that's exactly what this Tech Tip intends to address. Quality Recovery and Rework - When It All Goes Wrong When Quality is the Target, but not the Result, what do you do?While Quality may be the overarching goal of all production, stuff happens, resulting in non-conforming parts. This results in failure verification, rework, recalls, sorting, kitting, retest, relabeling and pipeline management, which are facts of life in the manufacturing, assembly and production world we live in. Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Ordering an Inkjet Cartridge Online It is true. You can save a lot of time and money by ordering your next inkjet cartridge online. Learn How To Diagnose Power Supply Problems The Power Supply convert's your regular household current into low DC voltage used by the computer. When this component fails,there is simply no activity going on wih your computer. The Importance Of Current Sense Resistor In Switch Mode Power Supply Current sense resistor is usually located in the switch mode powersupply section. Newer version of monitor-the b+ (boost) circuitalso have this current sense resistor. ATA vs SATA Hard Drives: ATA versus SATAThe performance of computer systems has been steadily increasing as faster processors, memory, and video cards are continuously being developed. The one key component that is often neglected when looking at improving the performance of a computer system is the hard drive. Getting A Great Refurbished Laptop Are you sick of all the high priced notebooks out there? Does getting a used laptop seem like a better choice to you? Refurbished laptops are everywhere these days, and the word itself seems like a "buzz word" of the industry. But do these used machines actually hold up to the strict standard of the word "refurbished"?In this article I will discuss exactly what process a used notebook should go through before it is called "refurbished", as well as the advantages and disadvantages purchasing one brings. 3 Easy Step To Locate A Real Bargain On Laptop Batteries Looking for a real bargain on laptop batteries? How do I know the batteries are running good as advertised? Which merchants are offering quality rechargeable cells? Where can I get the bargain? Where to buy?Many of you have some of these questions? Certainly!!. We surely want to saving our hard to earn $$ and only buy quality cells. The Merging of Humans and Computers Soon the human brain will be completely interfaced with the computer. The benefit to mankind will be truly significant. A Guide to Refurbished Laptops Computing freedom, independence, and mobility don't have to come with a hefty price tag.Manufacturers refurbish laptop computers that have been returned. How To Backup Your Hard Drive We all know that we should back up our system as soon as possible. But if you're like most of us, you will get to it tomorrow. What is Over-clocking a Processor? Q : What is over clocking?Overclocking is when you make your system processor run faster that its normal speed. This has many advantages and dis-advantages. Emergency Response VSAT Internet Communications As 2005 begins, there are a number of products on the market which enable Emergency Response Units to have internet connectivity at remote disaster locations. The products marketed this year mount on vehicles from Fire Rescue units to most any type of truck or van, on specially designed trailers utilizing portable generators and in transportable boxes which can be shipped by UPS or Fed X overnight to most any location in the U. War of the Disks: A Close-in Analysis of the Hard Disk Drive vs. the Solid State Disk Much has been written about solid state disks (SSDs) becoming the next big thing1 in the IT industry(1). But as to whether or not we have enough knowledge of how it will revolutionize the industry is a different question. Alternatives to Tape Backup You may ask, isn't tape an anachronism in the age of optical disks, removable hard drives and a plethora of whiz-bang, random-access storage media? In many ways it is, but because of the nature of backup it doesn't really matter that tape is slow and sequential-access. Remember, tape is cheap. The Newest Thing in Lighting - LED Lighting and What It Can Do The other day my son said to me, what else could anyone possibly invent? Sometimes it would seem that way, but I think that couldn't be further from the truth. Back in the late sixties and early seventies someone realized that light emitting diodes could be used for indicator lights. When Good Color Goes Bad... Even with the popularity of digital technology, and the availability of equipment and software associated with it, many printing firms are still slow to make the changes needed to upgrade their business. More so when it comes to digital photography. Personal Asset Preventive Maintenance Software Personal asset preventive maintenance software exists to help people manage and maximize the value of their assets. Common types of personal asset preventive maintenance software deal with taxes and investments. A Review of Refurbished Toshiba Laptops Toshiba offers a few of their refurbished laptops in the "Clearance Store" of their official website toshibadirect.com. DVD ROMs DVD CD ROMs have become predominantly the most used CD drive for desktop and notebook computers. They are very reliable and now come as a standard in most computers. |
home | site map |
© 2006 |